From the gentle softness of the moonlight in Debussy’s “Clair de Lune” or the first movement of Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata,” to the pounding intensity of Liszt and Rachmaninoff, these beloved piano notes capture the heart and soul of a live audience. In addition, such performances demonstrate the magnificent range of sound produced on a Steinway grand piano.

In recent decades, musical sounds are increasingly created electronically along with finger power. But can these sounds be readily duplicated on an electronic keyboard? The answer is yes, according to Lanny Davis, an engineer, pianist, and organist now living in Irmo.

After attending the University of South Carolina School of Engineering in the 1960s, he traveled the world between 1971 and 2007 as a product design specialist and performance artist for various keyboard brands, including Lowery Organ Company, Yamaha Musical Instrument Company, Roland Keyboard Instrument Company, Kurzweil Musical Instruments, Hammond Organ Company, and CBS Musical Instruments. During this time, he found that classically trained pianists continually complained of what they perceived as the inferior “action” of a digital piano. Also an inventor, Lanny was determined to fix this problem.

After 26 years, he has secured a patent on a product that makes a digital keyboard play and feel like an acoustic piano. Not only has he fixed the problem with the action, but he has also made the action key weight adjustable with two knobs at either end of the keyboard.

To accomplish this task, Lanny had to begin with the basic differences between a Steinway grand piano, or other acoustic keyboard, and an electronic piano or keyboard. The musical sound produced by a conventional keyboard takes place beneath and beyond the actual black and white keys, not surprising if you note the size of a piano in relation to the keyboard. Bartolomeo Christofori (1655 - 1731) of Padua, Italy, invented the first practical piano action at the turn of the 18^th century. Since that time, grand pianos use that basic concept.

The contemporary harpsichord of the time lacked the ability to respond to the strength of the player’s touch and so could achieve no significant gradations in dynamic expression. With this evolution came more options for keyboard music and the eventual emergence of the Romantic Era from the Classical Period.

Likewise, Lanny faced a similar challenge as he forged ahead to bring electronic keyboard music that originally became popular in the ’70s and ’80s the same options the piano brought over the harpsichord. On an electronic keyboard, the keys are much shorter than those of the classic Steinway grand, so the physics of striking a key is dramatically different.

To develop his patent, Lanny created action parts using 2D CAD software to print patterns that were affixed to planks of ½-inch poplar wood. Key models were assembled in two to five note groups to test. After testing was completed, a total of four complete 88-note keyboards have been made. The final individual moving action components were made with 3D printing at the S.C. Institute of Manufacturing Technology in Florence.

Lanny explains that each electronic piano key has three levels/components — the action, the electronics to create the note data, and the actual sound of the piano. The electronic circuitry was designed by an engineering associate in San Diego, California, with whom Lanny worked when Lanny was R&D director of Gulbransen Organ Company. The actual piano sound is generated using mathematically modeled virtual piano software, Pianoteq.com, developed by the Institute of Mathematics in Toulouse, France. Lanny has served on the Pianoteq software beta test team since 2011.

His current piano, along with a sound system, has been set up and played constantly by a number of local musicians and music industry associates to much acclaim, Lanny says. From here, the future looks bright for Steinway enthusiasts looking for a portable keyboard to take the sound they love with them.